{"id":54775,"date":"2014-10-09T05:45:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T05:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=54775"},"modified":"2014-10-09T00:06:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-09T00:06:16","slug":"govts-team-leaves-for-final-round-of-imf-bailout-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/10\/govts-team-leaves-for-final-round-of-imf-bailout-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov’t’s team leaves for final round of IMF bailout talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
The team leading Ghana\u2019s negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is heading for Washington, United States to conclude talks over the economic bailout programme.<\/p>\n
This is according to the Communications Minister, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah. After the first round of negotiations<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the IMF released a statement announcing some key sectors which would be targeted during the three-year bailout programme.<\/p>\n IMF is considering a drastic cut in the public wage bill, while on issues of energy, petroleum subsidies have been earmarked for complete elimination.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”c2dPKllb8sgi1ROEbaHPs5Q5SIzi4JiE”]President John Mahama, has charged Ghana’s negotiating team<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to ensure that the final agreement agreed on by both parties does not affect Ghanaians negatively in the end.<\/p>\n A statement signed by Dr. Omane Boamah mentioned that during a high level meeting between the President and his appointees<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on Wednesday, it emerged that the IMF\u2019s views and positions on what needed to be done to inject greater robustness and stability into the macro-economy \u201cwere in near-perfect alignment with government\u2019s home grown policies.\u201d<\/p>\n The meeting, according to the statement also discussed the performance of the economy over the last three quarters of 2014.<\/p>\n The key issues touched on included the significant gains made by the Cedi against the major trading currencies and the progress made so far in the negotiations with the IMF over a new three-year programme.<\/p>\n It was also agreed at the meeting that \u201con-going measures in the form of an aggressive import substitution programme needed to be strengthened to drastically reduce the trade deficit and improve on the balance of payment position of the country over the medium to long term.\u201d<\/p>\n The President has however charged Ghana’s negotiation team<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to ensure they do not accept a programme that will bring untold hardships onto Ghanaians.<\/p>\n